Changing the world, one game at a time

Melanie Thornton was a chubby, awkward 10-year-old with low self-esteem. Then she joined a sports-based community organization that gave her a boost of confidence when she needed it most.

That organization was the Sporting Chance Foundation, now called Girls in the Game.

"I was never a real talkative person, but at (Girls in the Game) events, you always seem to find a girl who has the same problems or issues that you do — even if they're a different ethnicity," said Thornton, 22.

That added self-confidence is crucial to a young girl's healthy emotional and physical development, said Amy Skeen, Girls in the Game's executive director. She said there is a staggering drop in self-esteem when girls reach pre-adolescence. "If you can get girls involved in activities where they see, 'Wow, I am strong. I am fast. I can dribble a ball. I can work as a teammate and make good decisions,' you're helping them get through that drop."

That's exactly the sort of sports-based societal impact that inspired Nick Keller to start Beyond Sport, a London-based international non-profit organization whose aim is to effect positive social change through sports. At its annual summit, held Wednesday and Thursday in Chicago, organizers are connecting people from the sports, political and corporate worlds with community-based organizations to discuss how that can happen.

"(The goal) is to get that intersection of sport, business and philanthropy that we believe will have a significant impact on communities around the world," said Keller.

The organization, which held its first summit in London last year, will also bestow financial awards to eight local sports-based programs. Five of those programs are finalists to win a $50,000 United Airlines Chicago Impact Award. There will also be six community awards in which winners receive $15,000 and access to free business consulting by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

"What we're interested in is where sport is used for education, conflict resolution or to essentially connect with people in a way that other things do not," said Keller. He started Beyond Sport in 2008 after working in the international corporate sports industry for almost 20 years. He also played rugby in his youth and said it taught him the necessary values to succeed.

"In terms of engaging youth, there is nothing better than sports to connect with them," said Keller. "It allows people to find a commonality. Those that are socially excluded can suddenly feel included as part of something."

Eli Wolff, research fellow at Brown University's Swearer Center for Public Service, said the real value and impact sports, recreation and fitness can have on communities is often overlooked or underestimated.

"Many communities across the country define sports more from an entertainment perspective or an escape perspective, rather than a real value in its role in community development," said Wolff.

"The power of sport has many dimensions and ways that it can really help. … You have to see it as a tool and as a way to give access and opportunity."

Reed Larson, who researches youth development and youth programs at the University of Illinois, adds that sports are very good at motivating youth.

"Kids learn a lot about regulating their efforts and their emotions. Plus, if they're having fun with it, it gets them in the door. If it works, you can add additional (life lessons) with it."

But, he says, an organization's success depends largely on its adult leaders' ability to motivate kids.

"It's really hard to get teenagers to connect to their community, because there is such a gulf in our society between adults and youth," Larson said. "When it works, it can work really well and kids can get a lot from it, even if it's fairly informal."

That's the kind of influence Girls in the Game had on Thornton. The citywide program, one of the finalists for a United Impact award, empowers and informs girls by using sports to impart knowledge about health and nutrition, leadership and self-esteem. It operates year-round at schools and parks.

Thornton joined in the late 1990s and stayed with it until she went to college — she is currently a senior at Northern Illinois University. Along the way, she went from a summer camper to a counselor to a member of the organization's advisory board when she was in high school.

Little Village-based Beyond the Ball's Bitty Ball program, also an Impact Award finalist, uses basketball to teach kids a positive message about health and fitness, leadership and being a good person.

Executive director Robert Castaneda founded Beyond the Ball in 2006. Originally an informal weekly basketball league for the kids at the elementary school where his wife was a teacher, the non-profit almost never happened. After gang members twice tried to burn down the Castanedas' house in 1998, the couple considered moving from the Little Village neighborhood.

But 12 years later, Castaneda is still reaching out to neighborhood youths. His aim is to get to them before the gangs do, and he said he's had success reclaiming small portions of what once was unsafe gang territory. Castaneda points to the organization's Project Play program, which he says draws between 300 to 500 people to a designated area each summer night to let kids play games of all kinds.

"We're doing something that works," said Castaneda, who two weeks ago was in Washington talking about his programs to U.S. senators.

Castaneda said he even found himself playing basketball and interacting positively with some of the same gang members who'd set his house ablaze 12 years ago.

"Even the gangs are responding. It's their kids too. They tell us they wish they had this kind of program when they were young."

Also up for the United Impact award are the West Haven Sports Club at the Near West Side Community Development Corp.; METROsquash's Path to Higher Education on the South Side; and East Garfield Park's Non-Violence Youth Boxing program.

There were 350 entries from 120 countries for the community awards and 55 local entries for the United Impact award. Finalists had to show how they use sports to promote education, health, social inclusion, leadership and conflict resolution in an ongoing manner to help their communities.